


Let me down gently

by FallOutStucky



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Feelings, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-21 02:15:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10675596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallOutStucky/pseuds/FallOutStucky
Summary: Iwaizumi Hajime had been through a lot. Like a whole lotta bad stuff.He´d been stabbed, shot at and tortured multiple times and yet ... He´d fought in two wars, had every single bone in his body broken and yet ... nothing could compare to his newest job. It was the hardest, most difficult and nerv wrecking job known to mankind. And that came from a man who had learned eleven martial art styles and seventeen languages over the course of five years.Well, that had been a piece of cake compared to being the babysi.... bodyguard of one Oikawa Tooru.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So this is how it starts my first haikyuu fanfic. I'm really happy with it so far, so hop on board and let's find out how this turns out together!
> 
> I plan on updating every week but I can't promise anything since I'm busy with university and will be moving very soon but let's just hope for the best.

When he woke up, he had no idea where he was. The last thing he remembered was a burning pain in his right leg, loud screaming and roaring in his head. Incredible heat from within him and coldness from the outside, a hard, dusty rock underneath him. It had been dark. That was another thing he was certain of. Only a second ago it had been completely black around him, cold, dark night.

Now the only thing he recognised was white, way to bright light that was stinging in his eyes even through his closed lashes. He tried to squeeze them together even harder but it only hurt his head more, so instead he slowly tried to open them. It took several tries but eventually he managed. Blinking against the light, he could only wonder how he must look like. Completely lost, god knows where, slowly trying to regain conciseness. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the light, he began to realise that he was in some kind of super sterilised room, lying on a bed with soft white sheets, a couple of blinking and beeping monitors to his left. He was in a hospital room, he concluded.

Which raised a new question: what the hell was he doing in a hospital room?

He tried to remember but all that was in his head was a thrumming pain. Shit. He tried to calm himself down, there was no sense in panicking right now, his memory would come back, eventually. It was totally normal that one had to suffer from some degree of memory loss after an accident worse enough. Because, concluding from the immense pain and the hospital room that's what must have happened.

For now, the here and now would have to be enough to ground him. Carefully he glanced to the right. There was nothing there but a small bedside table with three different bouquets and a white stuffed teddy bear on it, nothing that would give him any glue about what was going on.

Therefore, he tried to turn his head to the left and … almost cried out in triumph at the sight of a young man, dozing on an uncomfortable looking chair. The man was wearing rumbled clothes, as if he'd been sitting on that chair for quite some time. Against the light coming from the big windows behind him, he couldn't see much of the boy, just enough to know that his hair was a light shade of brown and that he was wearing a pair of thick rimmed glasses.

That man should have some answers. He tried to open his mouth, which only hurt his chapped lips. It wasn't what stopped him though, what did, was the burning, rough feeling in his throat, like he hadn't talked in a while.

How long had he been laying here? What the hell had happened to him?

He tried to form some words but all that came past his lips was a chocked off groan.

This though seemed to wake up the young man on the uncomfortable chair. Slowly, with twitching eyelashes and a tired yawn, he began to stretch his arms and legs before his eyes wandered to the bed and met the others open, slightly confused looking ones.

"Oh my god …", the man breathed out.

Somewhere in the depths of his brain he knew that voice, knew that guy, well he knew that he knew him but right now, he didn't even know his own name, nevertheless where exactly he was. Not trusting himself to speak he just continued to stare at the young man who stared back before, suddenly, tears began streaming down his cheeks. The guy jumped up and hurried to the bed, carefully but forcefully pulling him into a hug.

"Hajime! Hajime, thank god", the boy, because looked at him from a lesser distance he couldn't be older than maybe eighteen, sobbed into the other's hospital gown.

Hajime, right, that was his name. He began to remember. And maybe he would have remembered more if the burning pain in his upper half hadn't interfered, suddenly being present again. He let out a choked groan, instantly causing the other man to retreat to just taking Hajime's cold right hand, the one that wasn't hooked to an IV.

"How are you? Are you okay? God do you remember anything? Mom and Grandma and I we were so worried. Gosh Onii-chan, I thought you'd never wake up again …" He was sobbing again.

Wait… Onii-chan?? Hajime took a closer look at the man and suddenly the walls in his brain slowly began to crumble. Of course he knew this boy! This boy was Natsuhiko, his younger brother.

"Aarrhh..", took Hajime a second approach on trying to speak. "Nar.. Natsu...", he managed to whisper. The younger male quickly wiped away the tears in his eyes and reached for the glass of water that was standing on the small table next to the chair.

Hajime took hold of it with trembling fingers and surprisingly reached his lips without spilling too much of it onto himself.

The cool fluids did wonders to his sore throat and after about twelve more tries, he finally managed to form a complete sentence. Only consisting of five words but still...

"Natsu, why am I here?"

His brother frowned before leaning in closer.  
"You don't remember, Hajime?"

He shook his head, not trusting himself to say one more word.

"You're team got exposed and your cover was blown. After that you got shot, three times. Once in the leg and two times in the chest."

Well that explained the terrible pain... but wait why would he even get shot? What team? What cover? The last thing he remembered was him coming home from school, middle school … His mom had been cooking chicken curry. Natsuhiko sitting at the kitchen table doing homework… being what? Eleven? Twelve? That was the brother he remembered not the grown up man before him. What was happening?

"I… How old are you? Natsu? Why? How did I get these injuries? I was…? School?"

Natsuhiko blinked. Shocked, hurt, surprised. "You're a soldier Hajime. One of the bravest, best man this land has ever had."

"What ..." he would've said more but suddenly a loud splashing sound came from the door, ripping Hajime out of his thoughts.

Both boys looked up in shock, only to see their mother standing in the open door, face pale and hands clasped in front of her mouth. The coffee she obviously had been getting was dropped and spilled at her feet. Tears started running down her cheeks as she whispered her son's name, over and over again.

"Hajime, Hajime. Oh Hajime. Hajime, thank god."

"Mom...", he whispered back. That was all it took for her to head over to the bed and pull him into a tight and painful embrace.

"You have no idea how worried we were about you", she whispered and Hajime could feel the warm wetness of tears on his neck.

Somehow, the tears confused him. The sudden outburst of feelings from people that his heart knew were his family but his brain could just so recognise. Of course, he wouldn't tell them that, it would break their heart, that at least was something the rational, logical thinking part of his brain was able to provide.

Eventually, his mother let go of him and Hajime could breathe again. Softly, she took his face between her hands and looked him up and down, taking in the fading bruises on the right side of his face, the split lip and black eye. It had to scare her, it just had to. But it didn't for some reason. She looked tough, unbreakable as if she'd seen something like this before.

"Mom you …", he started but his eyes were caught by something silver hanging around her neck.

A pair of dog tags.

Automatically he reached for them to read the engraving. He was shocked to his own name written there.

That was all it took for the walls in his brain to scramble down completely. All the pictures came running back.

The shooting of a gun. Blond tousled hair on a white pillowcase. A fake ID. Dancing in a big ballroom. The desert. An empty building. An underground base. Himself in a black uniform. A wide smile and shining blue eyes.

"I… but what?", he stuttered, now even more confused.

"Hajime, darling. You're whole team is dead. It's March 10th. You've been in a coma for eight days. You are no longer a soldier", his mother explained, taking his hand as tears began streaming down her face again and even Natsu's eyes began to glisten. Hajime couldn't cry.

It took twenty-seven days more for Hajime to be fully able to walk again and twelve days longer till he didn't need his mother and brother any more to get over the day. It was hard, but together they managed, they've been through worse. In all that time, Hajime didn't cry. Not once.

After sixty-three days he finally gave in and went to see a therapist.

After twohundred-and-twelve he was sure he remembered everything again. After twohundred-and-thirteen he knew that wasn't true.

Fourhundred-and-two days later, he found a new job that would change his life forever.


	2. When you'd least expect it...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "See, my name is Iwaizumi. Mhm?"
> 
> She continued to stare at him. "That's a long name."
> 
> He smiled. That's what Natsu had said when be was taught to write his full name. "You think so?"
> 
> "Yes…can I call you something else?"
> 
> "Sure, like what?"
> 
> He was just about to tell her his given name when she gasped. Apparently she'd got an idea for an alternative on her own.
> 
> "I know! I'm gonna call you Iwa-chan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah okay, I didn't stick to schedule...I'm just so fucking busy *goes and cries in a corner*.
> 
> But I'll do my best so please stick around!

It was an unusually hot morning in late April when Hajime first met the Oikawa family … or more precisely spoken, their youngest member.

He'd just finished his morning jog and was now walking back home, a paper bag with pastries in one hand and his phone and headphones in the other. He'd got them in the small bakery in the uptown district which may have been a bit expensive but made the best green tea buns in town. His mother used to work there before Hajime was able to support her with his army raise and she didn't have to have a second job any more. This was the first time since he'd came home that he had gone to the bakery. The older woman who ran the shop had to do a double take, not really believing that the grown man in front of her was the same little boy that used to run around the bakery and steel the sugar buns before they were fully cooled. Somehow he was glad that she still saw the little boy in him that he had been. Not the boy who went to war and survived. And came back as a man who couldn't cry. It somehow helped him not to forget that person, the one he'd been before.

Therefore, he was in an exceptional good mood, walking down the street. In his mind he was still singing along to the familiar song he had last listened to and that he knew would be stuck in his brain for the rest of the day.

Since the weather was excellent and his mom wouldn't be home before noon, Hajime had decided to take the long route back which led him through the park near the river, across the Marimoto-bridge and through the more wealthy part of town. Ever since he had first started jogging back in Middle School he had loved this route.

The park was beautiful in autumn with colourful leaves sailing across the air, dogs and kids running around and playing in piles of leaves. Right now, in the spring it was a dream to run along the sakura trees standing at each side of the river with their rose and pink coloured blossoms. The very trees under which his father had asked his mother to marry him thirty years ago during their third Hanami together.

Marimoto-Bridge, too, always filled Hajime with a certain melancholy, it reminded him of his childhood when he and a then so much smaller Natsuhiko would stand on the small stone rising and lean half over the metal railing, frightening their mother who thought they were going to fall off. They loved to see which one of them could throw a small stone the farthest. Or as they got more creative who could hit one of the big rocks in the river with the least try. Hajime had always let his younger brother win.

Sometimes their family would take a walk through the streets uptown and the two brothers would dream of the life they'd be having here in the future when Hajime would be an astronaut and Natsu a big film star. They would buy their parents the biggest house in town, the one on top of the hill. Marimoto Castle, as the people in town called it. The house wasn't a castle but not to far of either. Something like a mansion, maybe. It had a big park around the main building with fountains, tall old trees, flower blossoms and a big shaggy dog running around. Every time their way would lead them along the road, the boys would press their faces through the fence and marvel at the tall building. They had promised their parents that they would one day life there, that their dad wouldn't have to have the shitty job with the terrible boss, that their mom could travel to all the places she'd always dreamed of and their grandma could live with them and they'd have a dog and some bunnies and ...

Hajime sighed, ripping himself out of the memories that had involuntarily come back at the sight of the familiar road, What dumb daydreams they had had.  
It was actually the first time Hajime had taken the road since coming home and he thought that maybe it had been a mistake.

Because now, about sixteen years later their lives couldn't be more different from what they'd imagined. They were living in the same small house, their grandma in Natsuhiko's old room, who was now in Tokyo studying to become a doctor, while their mom was still working more than she should and Hajime mostly staying at home, being glad if he could sleep a night without being awoken by a nightmare.  
He sighed and put his ear buds in again, in a half-hearted attempt to drown his thoughts.

The familiar melody of the upbeat song streaming into his head as he began humming along while walking down the street. Since he'd come home he'd taken a kinda weird liking towards j-pop. A style of music he'd never really fancied before. But now it was almost as if it was some kind of medicine for his damaged brain, heart and body. Always cheering him up.

He was so engaged in his music that he almost failed to notice the small girl, that was sitting on a park bench a few meters in front of him. A quick look around confirmed his suspicion that there was no one responsible for her within reach. Her light brown hair, kept together in two thick plait and the light blue dress she was wearing as well as the tiny ankle boots were covered in mud.

Avoid trouble, his military senses told him. Help her his human ones were screaming louder. He took one last look around before approaching her, slowly.

"Hey, everything alright?", Hajime asked quietly to not scare her. He wasn't really good with children, Natsu being the exception. They tended to not like him

"I was … s-sear…running after my dog and…", she took a deep breath. "I ran to far and now I d-d…don't know where I am." She just so pressed the words out before she started crying again. Hajime panicked slightly before reaching out for the little one's hands. She stopped crying for a moment and reluctantly laid her small hands into his much bigger ones.

And promptly started crying again. Shit.

"Hey…hey..." Why was he so god-damn bad at comforting people.

Hajime loosely held the little girls hand, who still had tears running down her face.

"Shh, breathe, in and out slowly, okay? I'm gonna do it with you", he tried a method he'd been taught at the very beginning of his training on how to communicate with someone who went under shock.  
"In. Out. In. Out. See?"

The girl followed his example, bravely keeping her face in check and blue eyes staring into Hajime's grey ones. Eventually the tears stopped.

"Now, could you maybe tell me your name? I'll tell you mine to if you do so", he tried. The little girl opened her mouth wide but seemed to remember something in the last second, snapped her mouth shut, nibbling on her bottom lip and frowned angry. With the still drying tears on her cheeks, she looked like a fierce little warrior. Her whole thinking process was visible in her big brown eyes. Somehow he reminded Hajime of himself when he'd been her age. Always putting on the masquerade of bravery while in reality being scared as hell.

"See, my name is Iwaizumi. Mhm?"

She continued to stare at him. "That's a long name."

He smiled. That's what Natsu had said when be was taught to write his full name. "You think so?"

"Yes…can I call you something else?"

"Sure, like what?"

He was just about to tell her his given name when she gasped. Apparently she'd got an idea for an alternative on her own.

"I know! I'm gonna call you Iwa-chan."

"Iwa-chan?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Hajime smiled at her again. "Would you now tell me your name?"

She shook her head vehemently. "My mommy said that I'm not allowed to tell strangers my name!"

"Well, little lady then your mother's a really smart woman."

She nodded again, pleased with his answer. "She is! The smartest! The only person smarter than her is my onii-chan! But … he isn't home at the moment … so till he comes back, my mommy's the winner."

"Oh you might be a close second." Part 4 in the unofficial "how to get someone to talk to you" handbook: get them to like you. And the easiest way to do that was with compliments.

"Really, Iwa-chan?"

"Yeah!"

Hajime let go of her hands but didn't get up. The girls fierce look had softened a bit and he thought he might give it another try.

"Alright, so you don't want to tell me your name but would you maybe give me your address so that I can help you get home?"

She bit her lip again, thinking about his words before she gave a short, sharp nod.

"Okay."

She motioned for him to come closer before getting on her tippy toes and whispering into his ear.

"You know the castle on the hill?"

Hajime nodded in affirmation. Of course, he knew. What made him flinch was that she referred to it, using the same name Natsuhiko and he had used when they were kids.

"Good. Lead me there."

Hajime blinked at her surprised.

"What?"

"Just do it! I know the way from there."

He got up again and held his hand out to her.

"Milady?"

She blushed and let out a small giggle but took his hand instantly waiting for him to make the first step.

They walked in quiet for about a minute before she spoke up. Turns out she was a lot more talkative than Hajime originally thought.

"Iwa-chan?"

"Mhm?"

"You look funny."

He opened his mouth to answer but didn't really know what he wanted to say. She seemed to realise as much, since she just took it on herself to keep the conversation going.

"I didn't mean to offend you. I mean, you look pretty good. Almost as pretty as onii-chan. But you look different."

Oooh. Now Hajime got what she was talking about. No one had talked about him being a mixed child since High School. There his dark hair and skin had stood out against the others. During his army days, his looks had been an advantage when it came to blending in in most southern or West Asian countries. No one had mentioned it any further.

"That's because my mother isn't from Japan", he explained. "She was born in India but came here for holiday thirty years ago, during which she met my father, fell in love with him and stayed."

He didn't know why on earth he was telling that whole story to a little girl, a stranger he'd just met a few minutes ago. Somehow it was freeing, talking about such trivial and normal stuff. This girl didn't know what he'd been through, what he'd done. She didn't judge him or worse praise him. Like that the fifteen-minute walk was over in the blink of an eye. The girl, he still didn't know her name, asking him different harmless questions. Like what his favourite food was or if did have any pets.

They rounded the corner to the street the mansion laid in when Hajime wondered how far it would be from here on because of course, he would bring the kid home and not just till here, making sure she was really safe.

He didn't have the times to wonder any further since he averted his gaze from the light haired head of hair besides him to see a mass of people standing around a car, which was parked in front of the big metal gate.

One of them, a woman was gesticulating widely while talking to an unimpressed man in front of her. She seemed to be in some kind of panic, trying to convince her opponent that it was important, whatever it was she wanted him to do. Behind her was a young girl of maybe twenty, ugly crying and sobbing into the shoulder of a disgusted looking old man which was still trying to comfort her some way by patting her shoulder with his right hand. Hajime had no idea what was going but thought it better, for the sake of the little girl to not get involved.

He turned to the left to ask her to make a detour but she wasn't paying attention to him, just staring at the scene in front of her. Suddenly, she ripped her little hand out of Hajime's and started running.

"H … hey! No, come back!", he yelled before going after her. The kid was faster than he'd expected.

"Mama!"

Hajime stopped dead on track, watching as the woman's head spun around towards them.

"Mariko!", the woman yelled back and began running towards the girl, swooping her off the ground and wrapping her arms around the girl, Mariko as he now knew.

He took a few steps forward, unsure about how he should react to the new situation.

Now that he saw the two of them together, up close, he couldn't help but recognise the similarities between the two of them. The same light brown curls, the same brown eyes. Even their laughs were similar.

"Thank god, Mariko. We were so worried! Where the hell did you run off to?", her mother asked when she finally let her go, though still kneeling in front of her, holding her by the thin shoulders.

"I'm sorry, mama. I went searching for Kiko and I got lost." She raised her hands to her face, trying to stop her tears from starting again. Or so Hajime guessed. His eyes travelled from mother and daughter to the three people behind them. The girl was staring at them, shocked, tears still running down her cheeks and ruing her make up. Even unimpressed young guy and grumpy old guy seemed surprised at the sudden turn of events.

"But, it's okay because Iwa-chan helped me to find my way back home!"

At the mention of his new nickname, Hajime looked back at the two.

"Iwa-chan?", the woman asked, averting her eyes from Mariko and looking behind her. Just now seeing the not exactly small man awkwardly standing in the middle of the street behind her daughter. Hajime made a few steps towards them, at least remembering that he should maybe smile instead of frown to not completely seem like some creepy guy who picked up little girls in the middle of the street. When Mariko's mother rose to her feet again, Hajime extended his hands for her to shake.

"Iwaizumi Hajime, M'am", he politely introduced himself.

"Oikawa Kaede", she returned the greeting, shaking his hand. "Thank you for bringing my daughter home." She looked him up and down, giving Hajime the time to analyse her, too. Her white blouse, the dark blue skirt and blazer as well as the killer high heels screamed luxury. As did the Austin Martin behind her. As did the three people which obviously worked for her. As did the… just like that, the wheels in Hajime's head began to turn and he finally realised. The house, the mansion, the castle. It belonged to this people. Suddenly one of his oldest childhood tales had been turned upside down. He'd always imagined women in colourful ballgowns, man in fancy robes, extraordinary food and hidden affairs behind heavy, opulent doors associated with the building. Some cute fairy tail fantasy that he'd never really shaken off not even during his adulthood. Now it had all shattered to pieces, turned into reality, the faceless princesses had been given a face and a personality. For a moment, he was a bit shell shocked but then he gathered his thoughts again and smiled at the woman before him.

"Oh. Of course. She seemed so lonely and lost that I wanted to help her."

"Thank you, so much", she said, still holding his hand. She only let go of it when they heard the sound of someone running down the gateway. The steps belonged to a young man with short black hair and a pair of thick rimmed glasses, who was wearing the same black suit, dress shirt and tie as mister unimpressed.

"Oikawa-sensei!", he yelled, his voice higher than Hajime had expected. He was around his age and seemed, calm and collected though not as distant as his colleague. Hajime instantly liked him. The young man came to a halt as soon as he noticed Mariko standing next to her mother.

"Mari-chan? You're back…", he said, slightly puzzled, tilting his head to one side. Then his eyes snapped towards the woman he originally came to see. She suppressed a grin and motioned towards Hajime.

"Hiro-chan, this is Iwaizumi Hajime, our saviour. He brought Mariko home. Iwaizumi-san this is one of our personal bodyguards Hiromori Hayate."

Hajime shook the man's kindly offered hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too. Well, then I guess, we should head back inside and calm down your husband before he calls for the cavalry."

Mariko let out a chuckle, her mother joining her.

"I suppose we should", she agreed before turning to Hajme again. "Again. Thank you so much. We'll definitely get back to you."

He tried and failed not to blush as he stuttered through his next few words. "Oh no. Really, there's no need. I just did what everyone would have done."

She nodded. "You may think that, but there aren't many man like that." With that she turned around, leading Mariko and her four employees back to the house. When they passed through the gate, Mariko turned around, waving and smiling at him. Hajime couldn't help but return the gesture until he was left standing there, awkwardly standing on the empty road, iPod and a bag with pastries still in his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know, I know. They don't meet im this chapter either. Buuuut: this is also important back story and hey we now know more about Iwa's family and a little bit about the Oikawa's, which are an important part of this story. 
> 
> Anyways, the next chapter will start with their first meeting and they will finally interact with each other.
> 
> Also fun fact I store these in a folder called IwaXTrash (dunno why I thought I has to shar that…) and listen to J-pop while writing. It really helps calming you down and bringing you in a good mood. I recommend Da-Ice for that, they're the best ♥

**Author's Note:**

> Jeeez? He lost his memories? He's gonna get everything important back, don't worry. This won't be a mature plot point, keep in mind that it's just the prologue. The real drama will start very soon.
> 
> Kudos and Comments are highly appreciated! Let me know what you think, darlings ♥  
> See you next week!


End file.
